


Moving On

by jesse_panic



Category: Silent Hill, Silent Hill 4: The Room, Silent Hill Homecoming
Genre: Angsty Schmoop, M/M, Male Slash, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-26
Updated: 2012-02-26
Packaged: 2017-10-31 18:18:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/347029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jesse_panic/pseuds/jesse_panic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex and Henry are talking in Henry's (new) apartment, when a chance accident leads to them considering their relationship and possibly coming closer together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Moving On

**Author's Note:**

> Alex and Henry are the cutest of the pairings. I just... yeah, no words. For two people who can and have endured horrific events, they are adorable.

“Okay, ow.” Alex grimaced as the antiseptic sponge touched his temple. Hearing the soft laughter from the person dabbing at the wound made him nervous. “I mean, you got the corner in my eye; you’ve gotta be careful with that thing.” he said automatically.

Henry smiled deeper, and brushed the sponge on the wound in a more delicate fashion. “Really? I didn’t see it connect, and your eye doesn’t look sore.” Alex looked away. Henry squeezed his hand. “It’s okay, Alex: you don’t have to pretend to me.”

Alex allowed himself a small smile, and squeezed back. “Thanks, I guess I’m used to… putting up a front, you know.”

“I know.”

There was silence, save for the sound of the traffic outside. Alex shifted in his seat, actually getting the swab in his eye. It didn’t hurt as much as he thought it would, though Henry checked it carefully and methodically before rushing off to get eyewash (he really did seem to have everything in his apartment.) Alex felt his heart surge then, as Henry leant over him, a concerned frown on his face. Instinctively, he brushed his fringe out of his amber eyes, which stared into Alex’s with a kind of perplexed confusion. Henry always fretted about Alex, even if he tried to hide it. Whenever Alex came back from the station with a cut or a bruise or a tale about a raid that didn’t quite go as planned he could see Henry wince at the critical moment in his story, or stop breathing as Alex showed him yet another battle scar. But that was Henry’s way, really; always looking out for those close to him, not thinking about himself. Alex watched him walk past him to get the eyewash, counting the number of times he looked back over at Alex, as if to check he was still there, or still safe. Thrice: he really did worry too much.

“You know,” said Alex, as Henry returned with the eye bath, “Maybe you shouldn’t have got another apartment.”

“Huh?” exclaimed Henry in surprise, Alex’s question catching him off-guard.

Alex smiled back into his wide nervous eyes. He looked so damned cute when he was nervous. “I mean, maybe you shouldn’t have moved to another apartment, after what you’ve been through. It’s making you… edgy. It’s not good for you.”

Henry stopped fumbling with the eyewash and let out a small laugh. “Heh, maybe I wouldn’t be so ‘edgy’ if someone wasn’t so reckless.” He spoke in barely more than a whisper, glancing up at Alex through his hair.

Alex rolled his eyes jokingly. “It’s not recklessness when it’s your career, and anyway, last time I checked being an architect wasn’t much safer.”

At his words, Henry sighed deeply and stared at the ground. “I’m not just talking about Silent Hill and the Otherworld; I’m talking about real-life, everyday crimes. Before Walter was- whatever he became- he was just a person with a grudge against the world and the will to carry it out, and—I don’t want to lose you like that.” The sadness in his voice weighed heavily in the air.

In that moment, Alex could see the stress of all the times Henry had pretended to be okay with his job writ large on his face as guilt shot through him like ice water. He had been so focused on moving on and building a new life after leaving Shepherd’s Glen that he hadn’t been there for him when he had needed it most. Henry wasn’t like him, he didn’t do things to cope; he sat, and he drew, and he thought; and maybe that was the problem. Alex didn’t notice his more pessimistic moments because frankly, they were hard to spot. He shook himself- no, he can’t think like that- it was up to him to be there for Henry, not for Henry to come to him. He had to make this right.

He sat forward, taking Henry’s face in one hand, gently tilting it towards him and brushing his hair away from it with his fingers. “Hey, it’s okay: you won’t. I know I can be… well, I’m pretty clumsy- and I’m sorry about your vase, I really am-” he glanced over at the offending shards, which had toppled from the bookcase and shattered on his head, grazing his temple.

Henry chuckled in spite of himself and shook his head. “It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”

“It’s not fine, I shouldn’t break your things, and I need to apologise.” Alex continued, despite Henry shaking his head, “But with this other stuff, I know it’s hard, after… everything, but I’ll be okay, I promise. This is the job I was meant to do, and you know what it feels like when you’ve found your calling,” Alex remembered a time when he had slept over at Henry’s only to wake up with sheaves of schematics resting on his chest as Henry had run out of space on his desk and ‘just needed neaten up the technicals a bit’ before going to sleep. It was eight in the morning. “And I know this is mine. I’ve gotta do it, and I know this is unfair on you, but you have to trust me, okay? I won’t do anything stupid; I don’t want to let you down.”

Henry gazed up at Alex, watching the oscillations of light in the gray of his eyes. He couldn’t begin to describe what he felt for him, or how much it meant to him that he cared enough to make this promise, but at the same time he feared for him. He knew the pain of watching someone die, and it was beyond agonising- to stay with someone and calm them and tell them it’s going to be alright when you can see the light leaving their eyes- but he also knew the pain of discovering someone you care about at the jaws of death, and that was far greater. And after all this, he did not- he could not- bear to lose Alex that way. They had been there for each other since the moment they first met, and now, Henry couldn’t imagine what he’d do if he didn’t have Alex. It felt so good to find someone who just understood it all, that the crazy stuff at South Ashfield Heights really had happened, and the reality of the sacrifices people made in that building.

He hated thinking about South Ashfield, but couldn’t stop his mind from going there. He wanted so badly to talk about it, to exorcise his thoughts so he could get some peace, but until he met Alex, he couldn’t. If he went to Eileen he would feel bad for dragging it up; she had very different ways of dealing with it than him and was much happier to move past it, and if he went to a therapist he’d get committed, or worse, accused. But then they had met at the hospital, after Henry had heard him shouting about Silent Hill during one of his attacks, and they had been together ever since. Alex had helped him so much- always happy to talk, or listen, or just stay with him- and he hoped he had done as much for him in some way. He knew he wouldn’t let him down, and he knew he could trust him, but that fear always lingered in his mind; and at night he dreamt of alleyways and broken down doors and the stench of death. He couldn’t go on like this, he had to overcome this fear; for his sake.

“Alex…” he began tentatively. “I know you won’t take stupid risks or anything, but… No, I know I’m overreacting, and I’m sorry. I just… don’t want to see you—” he broke off very suddenly, as if saying it might somehow make it real.

Alex immediately wrapped his other arm around Henry’s shoulders, pulling him into an embrace. “Hey, don’t think like that: it’s not gonna happen. Everything’s gonna be alright, okay? We’ll get through this.” He could feel Henry nodding into his shoulder as he spoke. “Everything that happened in South Ashfield, Shepherd’s Glen, Silent Hill… it’s all over now for us. You’ve survived, I’ve survived, Eileen’s survived; nothing’s going to happen to us, and not just because nothing ever happens in Portland.” The ripple of Henry’s breath tickled his shoulder as he laughed. “What I mean is, we should be moving on. And I guess to me that means you not living in an apartment that scares you.”

“My apartment doesn’t scare me.”

“When the pipes groaned the other night you started so violently you creased your journal. What, you think I didn’t notice?”

“… Okay, so maybe sometimes, I think this place isn’t exactly ideal for me. But honestly, on my salary, what else could I afford?” Henry flopped against Alex in an exaggerated gesture of futility, coming to rest next to Alex on the couch and in an even closer embrace, both of his arms around Alex’s shoulders and stretching down his back. “I can’t leave, so I’ve just got to learn to live here. I guess that’s a positive thing in the long run; I can’t just run away from what scares me.”

“There’s a difference between running away from your fears and constantly exposing yourself to them.” Alex frowned, pausing to consider something. “Henry, what about me?”

Henry let out a small gasp of surprise and pulled away slightly. “You’re very sweet, but I can’t accept money from you. Besides, you earn less than me.”

Alex grinned. “I didn’t mean that; I meant what about my place? I know it’s tiny, but it’s not an apartment.”

It was Henry’s turn to frown this time, gazing suspiciously into Alex’s eyes as if they would tell him if he’d heard that correctly. “Are- are you asking me to move in with you?”

Alex beamed, relaxed and excitable. “Yeah.” he said, pulling Henry tighter to him. “I guess I am.”

Henry was disbelieving. “Because of this?”

Alex’s expression clouded slightly, as if he couldn’t quite understand Henry’s thinking. “No, I want you to move in with me because I want to be close to you. I want to come home from work and see you there, and I want to wake up in the morning with you by my side. I want you to move in with me because I love you.”

Henry blushed at his words. “That is so… um, thank you. I love you too.” And with that, he planted a kiss on Alex’s lips, one of his hands gently brushing his collarbone as he did it.

Once they had pulled away Alex spoke. “So that’s a ‘yes’, then?”

Henry’s mouth barely twitched, but his eyes smiled back at him. “Yes, that’s a ‘yes’.” He swung his legs behind him to sit up higher, but Alex pulled him on top of him before he could do anything more than let out a surprised yelp. Henry very nearly didn’t put his arms out in time, and was about to make a comment to Alex about being careful, but stopped. He looked at Alex beaming up at him, heard his laughter- not teasing, but good-natured- ringing in his ears, and breathed in his scent; a mixture of coffee, aftershave and gunpowder; and decided that he’d rather not worry, and just savour the moment.


End file.
